Ashoka the Great, Chandragupta Maurya, and Chanakya could not believe what they were witnessing. A mass ethnic cleansing erupted right in front of them. All around the city of Kigali, thousands of militias and ordinary civilians were out on the streets with machetes and other weapons killing each other and regular citizens on sight. These people had been living fine together, sure there were disputes, but to devolve into this state so fast was terrifying. Perhaps their years of being strategists had made them so keen on the aspects of war that they could not even sense the tense presence.

As soon as they got word of what was going on, they ordered the Rwandan army to set to the streets to try and calm down the situation. However, it turned out that quite a few of their soldiers had fallen prey to the murderous craze. Sexual violence, bodily mutilations, anything went. Day in and day out, the 3 Indian strategists tried their best to quell the anger between the ethnic groups, but it was to no avail. By the end of the month, over a hundred thousand bodies lay in the streets, decaying.

For the Buddhist Ashoka, Jainist Chandragupta Maurya, and Zoroastrian Chanakya; all of whom’s religion focused on good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, this broke their spirit and their beliefs wavered for just a moment. Even for the spiteful Chanakya, it made him sick to his stomach. Ashoka was the first one to willingly forfeit the simulation. Nothing was worth bearing witness to one of humanity’s darkest moments.

Maurya was the next to go, just a few days after his grandson. No amount of simulations nor years of battle could prepare him for the atrocity in front of him. So he left as well. Chanakya, though he wanted to fight on, knew that there was no point in doing so. It didn’t matter if his team had been able to repel every attack that Baron’s team had thrown at them, the city they were defending were in ruins. Their army was in shambles, who knew if they would even be able to assemble with tearing each other apart. Chanakya left as well. The mountains. The mountains of corpses would haunt them forever.

Unbeknownst to all the strategists in the simulation, the reason for the early timing of the genocide was a planned event by the president of the country of Rwanda. With the three Indian strategists keeping Baron’s rebel forces at bay, he and a few of his loyal supporters were able to speed up the genocide. However, the mass killings extended to many of the smaller villages as well. No words could describe the horrific events that took place.

As soon as Baron, Roxi, and Jaxon exited the simulation, they shared a look of surprise between them. The result was not something they, nor anyone spectating, thought would happen. Such a battle was between two teams who should have been well-versed in warfare, who have fought and won against 4 other teams that can be considered top-class in all of Planet 4. A showdown of the unbeatables. Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya, and Chanakya were all battle-seasoned veterans, who would have thought that they would simply forfeit the match?

Baron decided that he should go and talk to Ashoka at the very least, see if there was anything he could do for the greatest strategist of the Indian community. Roxi and Jaxon pleaded to come as well, but Baron convinced them otherwise. Right now, Ashoka probably did not wish to have so much company. Besides, Baron knew the man better than them anyway.

Finding Ashoka was not that difficult as many from the Indian community had swarmed his location, as well as the location of the other two, to find out what their situation was. It took a while, but Baron was able to gain an audience as soon as he revealed his identity and once Ashoka approved. He was staying at a room that could only be considered average by the community’s standards, but it did give him privacy, for the most part.

There were 2 others in the room when Baron entered. One was Vishpala, a maiden from the Indian community renowned for her skills in R&D, as well as Rajaraja, the strategist who would be participating in the solo matches. They both looked at Baron as he entered, but Ashoka’s eyes remained closed as he sat on the far side of a table.

Rajaraja of the Tamil kings studied Baron. “Who are you?”

“I am Baron Magellan. I come as a friend to Ashoka.”

As soon as he heard this, Ashoka opened his eyes and stared at Baron with very sad eyes. Much different than the eyes that had greeted him before the simulation, and far more different than the first time that they had met at the party before the Sun Tournament began. “It’s alright. Rajaraja, Vishpala, could you two give me and Baron some room, please? I feel like I owe him an explanation.”

Rajaraja was about to say something, but decided against it, nodded in agreement and left without another word.

Vishpala got up from her chair and took another glance over at Baron, then over to Ashoka who was giving her eyes of assurance. She said, “if you say so, Ashoka.” She gave Baron looks of suspicion, but she left soon after.

“So, how are you holding up?” Baron pretended to not know Ashoka’s situation.

“Not great. I must say. As a man who has killed thousands of people, and ruined the livelihoods of so many others, I can say honestly that simulation we were in was way too much for me. It reminded me of my greatest victory, as well as my biggest regret during my time spent on Earth,” Ashoka recalled.

“Are you referring to Kalinga?”

“Yes, after that war that I waged against the people of Kalinga, I swore to never repeat such an atrocity ever again. Granted, I came close to breaking that oath a couple of times, but it still tears me up inside. Especially since some of those who I fought against are now my allies on this Planet. Every time that I run into one of them I feel this lump of guilt inside me. Thousands of years have passed, but It still weighs me down just as much as it has before.”

“Ashoka, I think you are one of the most interesting people on this planet because of the guilt that you harbor. Some of these people, like some of the Germans, Russians, Americans, Egyptians, even Chinese. Some people can kill a million, 5 million, 10 million people without batting an eye. Their years of working as a strategist have diminished the value of a single life into nothing more than an expendable number in their grand strategy.”

Ashoka looked away and closed his eyes once more, possibly pondering Baron’s words.

“It is horrible, but it is the reality,” Baron continued. “After fighting for so long, I think some of us on Planet 4 have forgotten what it’s like to lose a brother in arms. To have the feeling of fighting for something important. To feel like we are doing something good or even worthwhile.”

“You are right. It was foolish of me to continue fighting even after swearing off on it. I just thought that since all of these battles were simulations, I could stomach the death and destruction. Looks like I couldn’t.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“It doesn’t matter now. I think this is a wake-up call. It’s high time I stopped participating in these simulations. It brings me pain every time that I fight in a simulation. Plus, I am old.”

“What are you saying?” Baron asked, growing concerned.

“It’s time for me to retire. I am old, I’ve been fighting for thousands of years, and I think my PTSD is getting worse. Especially after that nightmare that we were in together.”

“What will you do from now on?”

“I’m not sure. I could continue to try passing on my teachings to the generations proceeding me, or I could just travel the different communities, I have always wanted to do that. Plus, I was never the head of the state of the Indian community anyway. Although I imagine my grandfather will want to rethink his position as well. Haha.”

“This is a sad day for Planet 4, but I am glad that I have decided to go down this path. You may be a great fighter, but your heart lies in loving and improving the world around you.”

“Enough about me, let’s talk about you. You should know, Baron, now that you and your allies have won all 5 of your matches, your team will be renowned and you three will shoot to fame pretty fast. That comes with it a certain level of opportunities, but also a lot of traps, and betrayals. Choose your allies well, as I have chosen mine.”

“That is a given,” Baron replied.

“A word of advice, Baron. If you haven’t already received an invitation to Luca’s challenge, I suggest you wait for a few hundred years at least to accept the invitation.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The challenge itself is difficult, that much is true, but it is tiered,” Ashoka explained. “There are two stages to this, neither of which has anything to do with strategy or military conquest. I have done the challenge once.”

“Really?” Baron was shocked.

“The first stage is a cakewalk compared to the second. This stage is only out of 100 points, but I didn’t even get that far into this one. The second stage is out of 1 billion points, I don’t think anyone on this Planet has ever gotten to the second stage.”

“How many points did you manage to get in the first stage?”

Ashoka took a deep breath before answering, as if the memory pained him, “…2, and it nearly destroyed my will to live. I had to seclude myself for centuries after that. I’ll never take up the challenge again.”

“How did it destroy your will to live?”

“It’s a painful memory to relive so I won’t say any more. However, I’ve been fiddling with the ID tech that the Jordsand people have given us, and hidden in there is a list of all the strategists who have taken up the challenge, why don’t you go take a look at that? I will need to see other people now, this talk has been great, Baron, I hope to talk to you again,” Ashoka told Baron.

“I understand.” With that, Baron left the room and started fiddling with the ID trying to find what Ashoka had told him. It took a while, but he managed to find it. Indeed, it was a ranking system of all those who had tried the challenge.

In total, a little over 500 people were listed. Included about the participants were their community of origin, number of attempts, points, and a bunch of other useless little tidbits. However, what got Baron’s attention was the state that these strategists were in. Many of them were stated as incapacitated and a few were active. He went all the way to the top of the rankings to try and find Ashoka’s ranking. Ashoka turned out to be ranked 33 with 2 points and 1 attempt.

At the very top of the rankings was Hannibal Barca, the man who nearly brought Rome down to its knees at the height of Rome’s power. Hannibal had a score of 10, but what was different about him was his status; off-world. This confused Baron as he didn’t know what that all meant. He looked down at the person who was ranked second on the list. It was Zhu Ge Liang with 7 points, but his status was unstable, whatever that meant.

All this time, Baron had been told that there was some conspiracy theory of Sun Tzu forcefully taking over the Chinese community from Zhu Ge Liang, but perhaps it had something to do with Luca’s challenge. In the third place was Cyrus the Great with 5 points, but his status read incapacitated. This was all a mystery to Baron, as such there were many questions that he wanted to ask, but no one to ask.

That was until Roxi came up to him and revealed that she needed his help with an important matter. It was regarding her great-grandfather that had seemingly returned to Earth. If anything, this was the person to ask. What a perfect little opportunity. Roxi and Baron both went into the simulation where Roxi could find Cornelius Victor Blaze the quickest, the Battle of Saipan Island. The battle that Baron, Roxi, and Jaxon had fought John Paul Jones and his teammates in the third round of matches.